1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling a universal remote control, and more particularly, to a method of controlling a universal remote control by which the universal remote control can be used to select external inputs into a display apparatus, such as a TV, without changing equipment modes of the universal remote control several times.
The present application is based on Korean Patent Application No. 10 2002-0060506, filed Oct. 4, 2002, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.]
2. Description of the Prior Art
As remote controls are widely used for the control of electronic equipment, the number of remote controls used in a home has increased. Therefore, there is difficulty in managing the remote controls. There is also inconvenience in that whenever a user wants to newly select and utilize other electronic equipment, the user should accordingly exchange one remote control with one another. To solve these problems, there has recently been proposed a universal remote control that allows one remote control itself to control a variety of equipment.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a general TV or other electronic appliance controlled by the universal remote control. A system of general electric home appliances controlled by the universal remote control will be described with reference to FIG. 3. The system includes a TV 10 and external equipment 20. The external equipment 20 may include a VCR, a DVD player and a DTV set-top box, for reproducing or receiving a plurality of media. For example, a video tape, a DVD, DTV, general ground wave broadcasts and the like, so that a user can reproduce or view relevant media. The TV 10 is used as an apparatus for outputting video signals from the external equipment 20. That is, all the video outputs from the VCR, the DVD player, the set-top box and the like are input into an external signal input unit 11 of the TV 10 and then transmitted together with ground wave TV signals selected by a ground wave tuner 12 to a video signal selection unit 13. At this time, the user operates a TV/external input select button 311 of the universal remote control shown in FIG. 4b so that a desired video signal can be displayed on a display unit 15. A control signal corresponding to the TV/external input selection of the universal remote control is transmitted through a remote-control signal receiving unit 14 to the video signal selection unit 13.
As for the selection of the video signal selection unit 13, the conventional TV 10 employs a toggle method in which video signals to be output whenever the user selects the TV/external input select button 311 are circulated and thus changed. However, there has recently been a tendency to change toward a menu list method in which when the user selects the TV/external input select button 311, a menu list for the selection of the external inputs is displayed on the display unit 15 of the TV as shown in FIG. 5 and the user selects an external input of the menu list by using direction buttons 312, a select button 313 and a cancel button 315.
The conventional universal remote control shown in FIG. 4a includes a key input unit 31 with a key matrix composed of a plurality of input buttons for controlling the external equipment 20 in addition to several input buttons shown in FIG. 4b. These input buttons include common buttons used for a variety of equipment among the external equipment 20, for example, the direction buttons 312, the select button 313, the cancel button 315 and the other buttons 316; individual buttons such as a play button and a stop button (not shown) for each piece of the external equipment 20; and an equipment setting button 314 for setting the external equipment to be controlled by the universal remote control. In operation, the direction buttons 312, the select button 313 and the cancel button 315 are selected for movement toward, selection and cancellation of a desired menu when a menu list of the TV 10 or a relevant one of the external equipment 20 is displayed on the display unit 15 of the TV 10.
The conventional universal remote control stores key codes for various equipment in a memory 33 in order to control the different types of external equipment 20. According to a selected value of the equipment setting button 314 and a selected value of an input button selected from the key input unit 31, a remote-control control unit 32 transmits a key code for the selected input button to a remote-control signal transmitting unit 34. The selected value of the equipment setting button 314, i.e. an equipment mode of the remote control, is stored in the memory 33. Upon selection of the equipment setting button 314, the equipment mode of the remote control is changed into DTV, TV, VCR, CATV or DVD as shown in FIG. 4b, and then stored. For example, if the selected value of the equipment setting button 314 is DVD, the remote-control control unit 32 generates key codes for controlling the DVD player according to selected values of input buttons selected from the key input unit 31. Further, the conventional universal remote control provides the additional individual button 311 for the selection of the external input into the TV 10, which is frequently utilized. If the TV/external input select button (hereinafter, referred to as “external input select button”) 311 is selected, the remote-control control unit 32 recognizes the selection as a kind of interrupt command and generates a key code for the TV 10 regardless of the selected value of the equipment setting button 314, i.e. the equipment mode of the remote control. However, key codes for the buttons, except the external input select button 311, are generated by referencing the equipment mode of the remote control. Therefore, when cursor movement is made or a certain external input is selected in the menu list displayed on the display unit 15 of the TV 10 shown in FIG. 5 by using the conventional universal remote control, a lot of cumbersome selection operations of the equipment setting button 314 occur.
A case will be discussed below, where the displayed video is changed to output video from the VCR, while output video from a DVD is displayed on the display unit of the TV 10. After reproduction of the DVD is first stopped, the menu list for selection of the external inputs is displayed on the display unit 15 of the TV 10 by selecting the external input select button 311. Then, the equipment mode of the universal remote control is changed to TV mode by using the equipment setting button 314 of the remote control. Subsequently, cursor movement is made in the menu list by using the direction buttons 312 to select the VCR as the external input, and the select button 313 is pressed. Now, the external input of the TV 10 is set as the VCR, and the equipment mode of the remote control is changed to VCR mode by again using the equipment setting button 314 of the remote control. When a VCR play button (not shown) is pressed, the VCR is started and the output video from the VCR is displayed on the display unit of the TV 10.
As a result, in the case where the output video from the DVD displayed on the display unit of the TV 10 is intended to be changed to the output video from the VCR, the equipment setting button 314 should be selected at least twice. This is because the cursor movement and selection in the menu list can be made only in TV mode even though the menu list for selection of the external inputs into the TV 10 can be displayed in any mode of the universal remote control.
As a method of reducing the number of changes of equipment modes which are frequently made upon control of a complex system by using such a universal remote control, Korean Patent Application No. 1993-6709 discloses a method of controlling a universal remote control using an artificial intelligence key, wherein a menu of objects to be controlled is displayed on a screen of a TV when a user presses a menu key, a submenu is displayed when the user selects an object to be controlled from the displayed menu, and the selected object to be controlled can be controlled when the user selects a desired control command from the displayed submenu.
However, in the method of controlling the universal remote control in which desired external equipment can be controlled by selecting a submenu displayed on the screen of the TV, the external equipment should be connected to the TV through a network for control signals so that the control signals generated from the TV can be transmitted to the external equipment. Further, the method requires: a network system, through which, when the user selects the submenu after display of the menu of objects to be controlled on the TV, the relevant external equipment recognizes the selection and transmits its own menu to the TV; or a two-way universal remote control capable of transmitting and receiving information and control signals to and from the external equipment, rather than a conventional one-way universal remote control for only transmitting the control signals to the TV or external equipment without exchanging information with the TV or external equipment.
Therefore, if the one-way remote control is used in the general system which is composed of the TV and other electronic equipment and merely utilizes the TV only as an output apparatus for video signals as shown in FIG. 3, there is still inconvenience in that the user should operate the equipment setting button of the remote control whenever he/she changes the external inputs into the TV.